Law Commons^™

A Model For When Disclosure Helps Security: What Is Different About Computer And Network Security?, Peter P. Swire

Colorado Technology Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Software Patent Experiment, Robert M. Hunt, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past two decades, the scope of technologies that can be patented has been expanded to include many items previously thought unsuitable for patenting, for example, computer software. Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office grants 20,000 or more software patents a year. Conventional wisdom holds that extending patent protection to computer programs will stimulate research and development and, thus, increase the rate of innovation. In this article, Bob Hunt and Jim Bessen investigate whether this has, in fact, happened. They describe the spectacular growth in software patenting, who obtains patents, and the relationship between a sharp focus on …

"To Clean Or Not To Clean": An Analysis Of The Copyright And Trademark Issues Surrounding The Legal Battle Between Third Party Film Editors And The Film Industry, Michael P. Glasser

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

On The Theory Class's Theories Of Asbestos Litigation: The Disconnect Between Scholarship And Reality, Lester Brickman

Articles

No abstract provided.

Foreign Investment Restrictions As Industrial Policy: The Case Of Canadian Telecommunications, Robert Crandall, Hal Singer

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

We assess the economic harms that would accrue if Canada were to adopt asymmetric rules of foreign ownership for incumbent carriers and entrants. We explain the current Canadian regulatory climate surrounding foreign investment in Canadian telecommunications. Competition in the telecommunications industry is generally robust, which suggests that rules aimed at favouring entrants are not necessary. Moreover, Canadian entrants are equally capable of attracting foreign capital as Canadian incumbents, which suggests that foreign investment rules aimed at favouring entrants are especially unwise.

Next, we review the U.S. attempt to stimulate competition in local telecommunications markets through an analogous form of asymmetrical …

Turning Worms: Some Thoughts On Liabilities For Spreading Computer Infections, Richard Owens

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Two aspects of the virus/worm liability problem are of particular note. The first is how tightly the Internet binds together many possible defendants; those who build and run it, those who populate it with increasingly complex electronic commerce Web sites, those who provide terminal software, those who send electronic mails, those who design its security algorithms, those who insure it, and those who hack it, amongst others.

The second aspect is how speculative such a review is. Little case law pertains. Even the language of the law(what does it really mean when we assess liability on the basis of a …

Following The Right Lead: Gutnick And The Dance Of Internet Jurisdiction, Mary Paterson

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

As improving methods of travel and communication facilitated the shift from an agrarian to an industrial society, the common law courts increasingly faced interjurisdictional disputes. Although British paternalism dominated early cases in which courts assumed jurisdiction over people, property, and actions in distant lands, these cases and the imperial attitudes informing them were slowly replaced by more modest jurisdictional assertions based on a sense of comity. The shift from an industrial society to an information-based society and the simultaneous growth of a global infrastructure based on satellite, telephone, cable, and cellular technologies have stretched jurisdictional doctrines in new ways, calling …

Les Consommateurs Et Les Clubs Vidéo Ont-Ils Le Droit De Modifier Les Films À Leur Guise?, René Pépin

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Dans un premier temps, nous voulons étudier le litige en cours. Même si aucune décision sur le fond n’est susceptible d’être rendue à court terme, nous pouvons scruter les prétentions des parties et voir l’état du droit aux États-Unis sur ce sujet. Nous examinerons ensuite comment cette problématique serait traitée au Canada.

Et c’est ici que la question soulevée dans le litige revêt tout son intérêt, car elle met en jeu des notions fonda- mentales en matière de droit d’auteur. On devra ainsi se demander si le fait pour une personne ou une entreprise de retrancher des séquences représentant quelques …

Rethinking Racial Profiling: A Critique Of The Economics, Civil Liberties, And Constitutional Literature, And Of Criminal Profiling More Generally, Bernard Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

New reporting requirements and data collection efforts by over four hundred law enforcement agencies across the country – including entire states such as Maryland, Missouri, and Washington – are producing a continuous flow of new evidence on highway police searches. For the most part, the data consistently show disproportionate searches of African-American and Hispanic motorists in relation to their estimated representation on the road. Economists, civil liberties advocates, legal and constitutional scholars, political scientists, lawyers, and judges are poring over the new data and reaching, in many cases, quite opposite conclusions about racial profiling.

Unleashing Instant Messaging From Regulatory Oversight, Fernando Laguarda

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

INTRODUCTION: { 1 } America Online, Inc. ("AOL") and Time Warner Inc. announced their intention to merge on January 10, 2000.' At that time, there was a great deal of excitement about combining these two companies and harnessing the power of an increasingly broadband Internet. In addition to the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and Federal Communications Commission ("FCC"), more than one thousand local communities conducted their own reviews of the merger. The FTC identified "open access" to the Time Warner Cable platform as an issue meriting specific relief {2} The FCC, for its part, specifically identified "instant messaging" ("IM") as …

Internet Domain Name Disputes: Working Toward A Global Solution, Sue Ann Mota

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The Internet is essential to the growth of the global economy and the Domain Name System is essential to accessing sites on the Internet. Over 170 registrars are accredited to issue top-level domains, such as .com, .net, and .org. Frequently, however, disputes arise over who should own a particular domain name. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has adopted a Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) to address these disputes. ICANN has approved four dispute resolution service providers that are currently handling domain name disputes. This article will examine the success rate of complaints, the elements …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Icann May Be The Only Game In Town, But Marina Del Rey Isn't The Only Town On Earth: Some Thoughts On The So-Called "Uniqueness" Of The Internet, Volker Kitz

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

"If you want to attach your network to the Internet, but you don't like the Network Solution, Inc.'s ("NSI") policies, for whatever reason, you quickly learn that NSI is the only game in town," said Catherine Simmons- Gill at a Congressional hearing in 1996. One might pose the question, "Why not just go to a different town?" Unfortunately, no other "town" can pride itself on hosting an organization that ultimately presides over the assignment of domain names under the current domain name system. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN"), based in Marina del Rey, is presently in …

When The Americans With Disabilities Act Goes Online: Application Of The Ada To The Internet And The World Wide Web, Steven Mendelsohn, Martin Gould

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Over the past decade, the emergence of electronic communication, Internet technology, and the World Wide Web has dramatically altered the lifestyles of many Americans and has affected the lives of us all. As a result of these technologies, society has experienced great transformation and has had to confront new opportunities and challenges and make many adjustments to accommodate these new developments.

American law has struggled to stay current with the new technology. In attempting to stay current and adapt to the new technology, the law has followed two lines of development. First, laws are passed to deal with new issues …

Canned Spam: New State And Federal Legislation Attempts To Put A Lid On It, Jordan M. Blanke

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Jurisdictional Issues In Electronic Commerce Contracts: A Canadian Perspective, Shafik Bhalloo

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Governments, the private sector, the media, and academicians have defined electronic commerce ("e-commerce") in a variety ways. Narrowly defined, e-commerce refers to sales or purchases transacted over open or public networks, such as the Internet, independent of whether the payment is made on the network. Employing a broader definition, e-commerce may also include sales and purchases made over closed or private networks, such as electronic data interchange ("EDI") and debit or credit cards.' This article will focus on the narrower definition of e-commerce and, more specifically, business-to-consumer ("B-to-C") transactions rather than business-to-business ("B-to-B") transactions.

In the first part of this …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Thumbs Up For Biometric Authentication!, Gwen "Wendy" Kennedy

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

For years, biometric authentication devices, such as palm print devices, retinal scanners and facial recognition technology, were things only seen in science fiction movies. But, in recent years, fiction and reality have been on a collision course. Government laboratories and defense installations have utilized these biometric authentication devices for decades, but commercial applications did not exist until more recently. This delay was caused in part by the high cost of these devices and the legal uncertainty surrounding their use in the commercial realm. However, these concerns have vanished and due to the growing instances of identity theft, the timing for …

Improving The Patent System For The 21st Century: Optimizing The Requirements To Be A Member Of The Patent Bar, Nathan Lewis

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

As the importance of protecting technology has increased in the past several years, there has been an increase in the demand for patent attorneys and agents. The patent bar operates to limit the number of people that are available to satisfy this demand. Although the patent office has recently updated their procedural requirements for taking the patent bar, the substantive requirements have received little attention to date. This paper analyZes the current requirements in light of their purpose and effect, as well as the international requirements to join the patent bar of other countries. It concludes that the current patent …

The Decss Trade Secrets Case: Dvd Copy Control Association, Inc. V. Bunner, Brooks W. Taylor

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Bad facts make bad law. In DVD Copy Control Association, Inc. v. Bunner, the California Supreme Court addressed a sympathetic plaintiff suing a group of hackers for ignoring the terms of a click wrap license and reverse engineering trade secrets from a computer program. To ensure that justice prevailed, the court held that a preliminary injunction against re-posting computer code containing those purported trade secrets was not a prior restraint on speech, but rather was content-neutral. In the trial court, despite the fait accompli of the computer code's Internet release to the hacker community, the court implausibly found that …

Dastar Corp. V. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Carrie Jones

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The Trademark Act of 19461 codified select portions of the common law on trademark and unfair competition. Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, as it is more commonly known, protects consumers and competitors from the "reverse passing off' of one's work as another's. In Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., the United States Supreme Court recently considered whether section 43(a) prohibits the unattributed copying of works available in the public domain. The Ninth Circuit had found that Fox could bring a claim against Dastar (which had copied and repackaged without attribution a Fox video series) under the Lanham …

Can A Copyright Holder Prevent Reverse Engineering? The Federal Circuit Court Holds That The Federal Copyright Act Does Not Preempt "No Reverse Engineering" Clauses: Bowers V. Baystate Tech. Inc. , Jonathan Wilson

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Intellectual property rights exist to protect the fruit of one's intellectual labor. But when an idea is made public, there develops a risk that another might be able to rework the process of creation and diminish the value of the original intellectual labor. This is exactly what happened to Harold L. Bowers. By utilizing the technique of reverse engineering, Baystate Technologies used Bowers' computer program to develop their own CAD software design to compete with Bowers's program. Bowers, however, had placed a "no reverse engineering" clause on his shrink-wrap license. This conflict presented the Federal Circuit Court with the difficult …

Recent Trademark Challenges In Cyberspace And The Growth Of The Initial Interest Confusion And Nominative Fair Use Doctrines, Jeffrey M. Becker, Purvi J. Patel

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The relatively recent legal doctrines of "initial interest confusion" and "nominative fair use" have become the dominant buzz words for defining the scope of permissible trademark use on the Internet, especially in the on-line advertising context. The prevalence of recent trademark cases applying these doctrines stems from the difficulty involved in assessing trademark liability in cyberspace, particularly when the trademark is not used as visible expression, but is instead used as an invisible tool, such as a metatag or keyword. For example, in its well-publicized opinion of Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. W. Coast Entm 't Corp., the Ninth Circuit adopted …

Research Tax Credit : Statutory Construction, Regulatory Interpretation And Policy Incoherence, David L. Cameron

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Section 41 of the Internal Revenue Code establishes a research tax credit in connection with "qualified research expenses" and "basic research payments," frequently referred to as the incremental research credit and the basic research credit, respectively. The incremental research credit is equal to 20 percent of the qualified research expenses for the tax year in excess of a base amount, and the basic research credit is equal to 20 percent of any basic research payments in excess of a base amount. The purpose of the credit is to provide an incentive for increased research activities in the private sector.

The …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Research And Development Deliverables Under Government Contracts, Grants, Cooperative Agreements And Cradas: University Roles, Government Responsibilities And Contractor Rights, Danielle Conway-Jones

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

More than anything, the United States Government is committed to research and development that will ensure America's position as the leader of nations. Nowhere is this truer than in the development of weapons and weapons systems, for these have, until recently, been the tools of superiority. From the tanks of World Wars I and II, to the guided weapons systems of today, to the unmanned fighting and space exploration vehicles of tomorrow, continued superiority of this nation will depend heavily upon the research and development of new technologies and innovation that must have dual uses for both the military and …

Trademark Challenges, John M. Cone

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The proponent of a product design trade dress must show that the trade dress is non-functional. In 2001, the Supreme Court considered functionality in the context of a patented, dual-spring mechanism for temporary road signs, which were designed to withstand strong gusts of wind. In reversing the lower court's summary judgment, the Sixth Circuit held that the availability of spring mechanisms, functionally equivalent but with a different appearance, rendered the dual-spring mechanism non-functional.The Supreme Court reversed, finding instead that the TrafFix dual-spring design was functional as a matter of law. The Court thus held that the availability of functionally equivalent, …

Copyright Under Siege: The First Amendment Front, Lackland H. Bloom Jr.

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

For the past twenty-five years, I have taught courses in both Copyright and Freedom of Speech. Until quite recently, these two tangentially-related subjects have co-existed in peaceful harmony. Over the years, I have traditionally devoted about ten minutes of Copyright class time to the free speech issue and no time at all in Freedom of Speech class to issues of copyright. That was then; the old world has changed. Now, we have collectively become embroiled in what some are calling the "copyright wars", with the First Amendment (specifically, freedom of speech) as one of the central battlegrounds. In 1970, two …

Co-Operative Development Of Technology: Understanding The Risks And Creating Opportunities To Excel, David L. Hitchcock

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

While technological advances come with increasing speed and complexity, the globalization of the economy has forced companies to become leaner and more focused on their core areas of expertise. As a result companies are forced to seek and acquire assistance from others when dealing with certain technological areas. In such cases, businesses often form co-operative relationships, such as outsourcing development work, mutual development agreements, joint ventures. These and other co-operative affiliations serve to facilitate a rapid adaptation to market and technology changes. These types of arrangements often come with significant risks, among them loss of trade secrets and competitive know-how, …

[Un]Safe Harbor: No Common Denominator In Privacy Compliance, Steven A. Wells, Mark Courtney, Peter Vogel

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Privacy is a social issue that varies depending on the mores of any particular culture. Clearly there have always been personal privacy issues before the advent of the Internet. However, the Internet has provided widespread proliferation of personal data which has dramatically changed the scope of where personal data may be. It was not really until about 1995 that the Internet brought this wide-spread change caused by ubiquitous growth of personal computers, online networks, graphical browsers, and broadband communications. Since it is impossible to accurately predict the ultimate direction of personal privacy on the Internet, governments around the world are …